February 27, 2025
Many consider Elon a genius. Being the world’s richest implies intelligence, correct? Despite his business acumen and engineering brilliance, his DOGE outfit’s approach to firing government employees is senseless and inhumane. They wreak havoc; they do a great job if this is their purpose. The proposed cuts to civil service are a monument to stupidity and cruelty.
In 2024, civil service payroll reached $275 billion against a total expenditure of $6.75 trillion. Firing all civil servants would save 4% of the budget. A fifty percent reduction in staff would result in a two percent reduction in the budget and a total demoralization of the public service, leading to low productivity. Elon, that’s hardly any savings, and the destruction of civil service would accompany it!
The US civil service, comprising 3 million people, has remained stable over the past four decades, with 2.93 million employees in April 1984 and 2.99 million in March 2024. So, why do you think it’s bloated, considering the US population grew from 235 million in 1980 to 335 million in 2023? These figures suggest the US civil service is remarkably efficient, serving a 43 percent larger population with the same number of employees.
The big savings, if there are any, would reduce program and not staffing expenditures, which have increased from less than one trillion dollars in 1984 to 6.76 trillion dollars in 2024 (it is not a surprise that local and state government expenditures have also increased substantially from half a trillion dollars to over four trillion dollars, in the same period).
All you have done, Elon, is ask your green-eared young people to use keywords to identify people to be fired (such as words related to DEI; have you tried to define DEI?). Any manager worth his/her salt knows that this approach to reducing staff is destabilizing, creating uncertainty that leads to no work being done in the organization.
A more effective approach to reducing staff and streamlining the organization is to ask managers or department heads to identify a five percent or ten percent reduction in personnel. Management is aware of any excess. But you are not interested in approaching the cuts professionally but in making headline news!
You responded to criticisms by admitting you had made mistakes and would correct them. That’s a reckless approach to management, especially when dealing with real people.
We should evaluate programs like USAID and analyze their goals and implementation to cut staff and budgets more effectively. Elected officials develop programs in the public sector to address public needs. Before elected officials approve new programs, consultation, negotiation, and evaluating options with stakeholders are conducted. We should regularly evaluate programs to determine whether they met their objectives, were updated as needed, or should be ended. Elon, you have not done any of this!
Your actions to date, Elon, have included the demoralizing, indiscriminate, and cruel firing of federal public servants and the sending of inane and confusing emails to millions of them. Smarten up or get lost!
andrasthehun.ca 